The Libertarian congressman, who is considered the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party, came in second in the Iowa poll, finishing fewer than 200 votes behind Bachmann and more than 1,500 votes ahead of Tim Pawlenty, who withdrew his candidacy after the disappointing third-place result. Paul's 27.7 percent dwarfed that of Rick Perry (4.3 percent) and Romney (3.4 percent) — although, to be fair, neither the Texas governor nor the former Massachusetts governor campaigned much.

Still, Stewart wondered Monday, why was no one talking about Ron Paul after his impressive showing in the straw poll?

"Rick Santorum?" he queried, after watching Fox News' Chris Wallace giving kudos to how well the former Pennsylvania senator performed in Iowa. "He didn't get half of what Ron Paul got. He lost to the guy who lost so bad he dropped out of the race. Santorum?"

He also joked about one pundit's positive appraisal of Jon Huntsman, the Mormon candidate who received 69 votes in the straw poll, a paltry figure next to Paul's 4,671.

"If all of Jon Huntsman's supporters met at the same Ames, Iowa, Quizno's, the fire marshall would say, 'Yeah, that's fine, no problem,'" said Stewart.

He ended the bit by saying that the Republicans are treating Paul as if he's Gary Busey on "Celebrity Apprentice."